Fiendlike Queen'
by Jamaica-tan
Summary: 'Fiend-like Queen': Is this How You Think The Audience Views Lady Macbeth? This was an essay I did when I was 15, and I got a B, my first


If I find out someone has printed this for to show as their own work, I'll kill ya!

'Fiend-like Queen'. Is this How You Think The Audience Views Lady Macbeth?

Malcolm, who later becomes the King of Scotland, used the term 'Fiend-like Queen'.  
Malcolm hated Lady Macbeth's husband, Macbeth, because he was a merciless killer, and everyone knew it. However, to call his wife 'fiend-like' may seem to be rather harsh to the other Thanes and Lords as Lady Macbeth behaved as sweetly and graciously in front of them. We (the audience) that she may not have not are entirely 'fiend-like'.  
But, as an audience of the 21st century we would see her differently as a 17the century audience would.  
To them, she would be akin to the witches and would be completely evil. To us we would see a complicated woman, and we will be watching her go from a proud and ambitious lady to a Queen who commits suicide.  
Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a manipulating and cunning woman, but it could be argued that she was nonetheless a loyal and caring wife to Macbeth.  
When it came to planning Duncan's murder, she persuaded, encouraged and even bullied Macbeth into doing the act, not just for her own benefit, but because she truly believes that he was destined to become the King of Scotland, and she decided that nothing would stand in the way of his destiny, as she says here:

' "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be  
What thou art promised" ' -Lady Macbeth, 1.5, lines 14-15

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth also had a very good relationship together, he calls her "My dearest love" when he fist sees her in the play, which indicates a closeness between the two.  
However, her bad points centers on her relentless ambition and ruthlessness; once she wants something nothing will stop her from getting it. She plans the event carefully but she does not really plan the after effects.  
With this attitude, it that she is quite uncaring, it seems, for other people's problems, and indeed their lives in the face of the aforementioned success, seen here:

' "His two chamberlains  
Will I with wine and wassail so convince,  
That memory, the warder of the brain" ' -Lady Macbeth, 1.7, Lines 63-65

In the 17th century, the audience may have been afraid to Lady Macbeth, because she seemed similar to the witches. In the 17th century witches were considered one of the ultimate evils, and the witches in the play are like that, evil and hideous. They are persuasive and powerful, like Lady Macbeth, except as you can see, she is even more aggressive; "Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself?"  
The witches are evil and look ugly, Lady Macbeth is similar but not ugly, and this could be seen as a view of deceit because she acts sweet but is really the opposite, but she does not look evil, and here we can see Lady Macbeth telling husband how to act in front of the others, like herself:

' "Bear welcome in your eye  
Your had, your tongue: look like th'innocent flower,  
But be the serpent under't" ' - Lady Macbeth, 1.5 Lines 63-65

In the medieval times that Macbeth is set in, Lady Macbeth does not fit in. In those times women followed their husbands, and let them make all of the major decisions. Lady Macbeth and her husband treat each other like equals, but when it comes to convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan, his king and kinsman, it is she who is the aggressor. Throughout most of the play, she acts as though she is the stronger of the two, she still supports Macbeth and tells him to simply 'Toughen up', while hiding her own worries.  
By Act 3 Lady Macbeth is the Queen of Scotland, she's completed her dream of success, however not everything has turned out how she planned. Her husband Macbeth is becoming paranoid with Banquo, who suspects Macbeth was involved with Duncan's murder. Macbeth decides to kill Banquo without telling Lady Macbeth, only saying to her "Be innocent of the knowledge, my dearest chuck" A sign that they may be drifting apart, because prior to the murder, they probably shared secrets and the evidence was there that they were close. When Macbeth sees the apparition of Banquo and panickes, Lady Macbeth only thinks that he is crumbling over Duncan's death. She tells him to be calm and sleep it through, but she might of felt slightly panicked by now, her husband seems to be crumbling before her eyes, when she is starting to have doubts herself.  
I do not think that Lady Macbeth expected her husband to change so much after Duncan's death, nor her own budding regret, as seen in this quotation:

"Where desire is got without content;  
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy  
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy"  
-Lady Macbeth, Act 3.2, Lines 5-7

In Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth is seen sleepwalking by the doctor and gentlewoman, who has seen her sleepwalk before.  
We see Lady Macbeth speaking in an unusual way, using the words "The Thane of Fife; where is she now?" and how she has dirty hands, she must act normally, however she feels so much guilt. Before she always speaks clearly and sensibly in prose, but what she is saying in poetic verse does not seem clear to the doctor and gentlewoman, but she is speaking of the murder of Duncan, and how events have gone wrong since then, throughout this entire time, she makes hand motions which show she is washing her hands, which mirrors her thoughts that her hands will never be clean, and that her mind may slowly be starting to unravel, because of her guilt.  
This scene shows a true insight into what Lady Macbeth is truly thinking. Before this scene we thought that she was rather ruthless and heartless, but we now see she regrets her actions, but puts on a brave face. Her hand washing also shows she thinks the blood is on her hands, and she can never be pure again. Earlier she had said to Macbeth "Go get some water, and wash this filthy witness from your hand" and yet in this sleepwalking scene, she contradicts herself by saying "Here's the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand"  
In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth starts as a very strong and assertive woman, who's ambitions lead to King Duncan's murder due to her belief that her husband was destined to be the King, but then regresses to a weakening woman. Malcolm was somewhat right to call her 'fiend-like', because of her ruthlessness lead to Duncan's murder, and from then on, the play shows the 'downfall of Scotland' because of the combined actions of her and the witches. However, to call her 'fiend-like' would lead us to think she had a very cruel nature, but she was very loyal and caring to her husband, she may have pushed to kill Duncan, but she did because of her belief in his destiny.  
In conclusion, I think that Lady Macbeth is a woman with many layers, we can see from Act 3 her confident and dominant layers slowly starting to peel away, because she can see that things are changing now, especially her relationship with her husband. Somehow her actions had cause Macbeth to slowly change to the tyrant King we see at the end of the play Towards the end of the play, when Macbeth has received news of her suicide, you can see that the two are so apart, compared to their earlier days with sweet words of "My dearest love" Macbeth does not appear to show any remorse, only saying ;

"She should of died hereafter; There would have been a time for such a word"


End file.
